


ship to wreck

by saltziepark



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, peez and mg brotp, penelope park is a hopeless romantic who writes love notes, you cant convince me otherwise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-30 02:53:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18306734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltziepark/pseuds/saltziepark
Summary: Penelope Park can't sleep and escapes to the roof, only to have the object of her thoughts follow her.





	ship to wreck

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from florence + the machine and song lyrics taken from vancouver sleep clinic

_in a glorious moment_  
you show me beautiful lights  
and i want to know all the colors  
emotion in your eyes 

_in a night made of diamonds_  
i don't see anything else  
cause i'm just learning to hold you  
above a sleeping world 

Amaranthine - the color of the sheets wrapped around her lover’s form. The deep purple caressing curves that Penelope had touched with hands, lips, tongue and skin hours previously. Her ribcage swelling and shrinking with each breath as the brunette pushed an errant lock of lighter brown hair behind Josie’s ear. Fingers touching her jawline, her neck. Memorizing the lines and plateaus of Josie’s skin as if it could be taken away from her in a moment. And to be honest, it probably could. Josie could wake up one morning to this and regret it all. She could call it a phase, a momentary lapse in judgment, a mistake. She could disappear and still be so damn present in Penelope’s life - the curse of a relationship in the halls of a boarding school. The curse of finding your forever at age fifteen. Everything could be taken away from Penelope if Josie paused to catch her breath, regain her senses. Because she would never be able to give Josie what she wanted or needed. She would never be able to be enough for the girl who deserved everything. If only she could ever convince Josie that she deserved more than second place. If Penelope ever planted a garden it would be full of poison. All poison. Deadly nightshade and carnivorous plants. She hoped she could spare Josie from her plague, but for now, the taller brunette remained steadfast at her side. An anchor. Penelope prayed she would never drag her down. 

Penelope could have never guessed that nervous glances across classrooms and the library would have culminated with Josie asleep in her bed after the best night of her life, but somehow it had. 

_xxx_

MG had called her out one afternoon when her glances toward where Josie and Lizzie were studying, bent over books, had turned into something less than a glare and an eyebrow raise to Lizzie to a study in the art form that was Josette Saltzman. Penelope and Josie had grown up near each other’s orbits - not quite having the same friends or running in the same crowd and certainly never sharing anything more than thinly veiled barbs with the blonde Saltzman - “keep walking and stick your tongue back in your mouth, Satan” had become a recent favorite of Lizzie’s, but each girl knew of the other. Penelope knew that she had it bad when Lizzie could see her pining. Lizzie, whose head was shoved so far up her own ass that she probably couldn’t taste anything but her own bullshit, had actually figured Penelope Park out long before Josie had. 

“Peez, you got it so bad for Josie, don’t even try to lie,” MG astutely observed, after Penelope had raised her head from her spellbook for the fifth time in the last three minutes to watch Josie struggle over a translation. But how could she help it when Josie wore an adorable pouty face with a crinkle between her eyes when she was concentrating? She was only human after all. 

“I will neither confirm nor deny any feelings towards the brunette Saltzman. You’re one to talk. Lizzie hasn’t spared a glance at you since they sat down.” Penelope licked her finger to turn the page of her book in a tone of mock offense. She honestly could not even say what was on the page previous because of more pressing matters, thank you very much. 

“Yeah, you would know better than me, P. You’re studying Josie harder than you’re studying Latin.” MG wiggled his eyebrows and smirked at Penelope. 

She grabbed a balled-up sheet of paper with mistranslated Latin scribbled all over it and threw it at the boy for his insolence. She really needed to be a little less obvious. It would ruin her reputation as a cold-hearted bitch, but that facade dissolved the next moment as she gave in and turned to MG. 

“Ugh, she’s infuriating me, MG!” Penelope groaned, frustrated with Josie for being so damn cute and with herself for letting Josie get so far under her skin and into her heart (this last part she would never admit to another living soul, thank you) that she could barely do anything when the other girl was in the same room as her. 

"She's just so ugh and then Lizzie is so ugh, but not the same kind of ugh, you know? And they're always together and if I could just get Josie alone then I could ask her - " Penelope trailed off, the rant dying in her brain because she knew that she could never catch Josie's eye. 

"What if you sent her a note, P? Do you like me? Check 'yes' or 'no'?" 

_xxx_

MG's foolishly inane idea had actually turned out to be the best way to navigate her feelings for Josie Saltzman. She laid it all out in plain English, enchanted in a note on grey cardstock that she floated through the library one afternoon, landing next to Josie, sealed with a kiss. Josie had found her hours later, legs kicked up on a worn leather armchair in the deepest corner of the library, the note clutched in one hand and her chest heaving. 

"Is this true?" Josie demanded, her voice breathless and high and it made Penelope wanted to drown in the sound of it forever. 

"Well, yeah, that's why I wrote it," Penelope answered nonchalantly, flipping a page in her book to give her something to do with her hands because she could smell Josie's perfume in the air and she was nearly going crazy at their close proximity. She could feel the heat from Josie where she was standing next to her, hands at her sides and Penelope just wanted to reach out and grab the girl. 

"You want to take me on a date? After all this time? How do you even know I'm interested?" Josie continued. 

"I think I said it a bit more eloquently in the note. Give a girl some credit, Jojo. And you're here, so clearly you are interested? Maybe? Hopefully?" Her armor had cracked, broken, disintegrated in Josie's gaze and it was all she could do to try to retain an air of bravado that was quickly going out the door as she melted under Josie's stare. _Just say yes, just say yes._

_xxx_

Josie exhaled loudly in her sleep, almost a snore, and Penelope sat on the edge of her bed watching her. Her thoughts called to her tonight, the endless torrent of self-doubt called her away from the warm body content and happy in her bed. Lips touching Josie's shoulder, Penelope rose and dressed quickly, a leather jacket fitting effortlessly over a grey tank and denim jeans. She turned back at the door, fingertips touching the frame, her heart in two places - the stars and the need to run, if only for a moment, and the bed where her love slept dreamlessly. 

She had left Josie a note - _If you wake up, which is doubtful based on your snores, you can find me in my favorite spot xoxo P_

The metanoia crescendoed as Penelope made her way up the stairs to the roof of the school - Dr. Saltzman had tried to lock the door but the guy really needed to work on his magic. Pedro could easily wander up here whenever he wanted to. 

Her legs dangled over the edge of the building as the door closed behind her and she turned to see Josie in her Stallions hoodie and a pair of sweatpants that were definitely a bit short and definitely Penelope’s. 

“I do not snore,” Josie laughed, taking a seat next to Penelope and dropping her head to her shoulder to look out at the campus beyond them. 

“Ah, I beg to differ. Remind me to record you next time you sleep over,” Penelope remarked, her lips finding Josie’s temple for a quick kiss. 

“That sounds an awful lot like material for blackmail, Miss Park,” Josie said as she sat up to level her best pouty-face at Penelope. 

“I’m shocked that you would think that I would stoop to such a level, Miss Saltzman,” Penelope leveled back in mock sarcasm. Blackmail was so beneath Penelope though. She would resort to other means to get even if someone had wronged her. 

A silence fell over them as they both looked out at the stars, the tiny pinpricks of light glittering the night sky and grounding Penelope in ways she could never explain. 

“Is everything okay? Josie asked quietly moments later, eyes downcast and Penelope hears the implicit question couched in her words. _Did I do something wrong?_

“Do you remember when I wrote you that note months ago? It’s all MG’s fault, really, but it was his idea to finally stop dancing around how I felt about you and to just put myself out there. And everything somehow worked out in my favor and you said yes and this thing with us started and I came out here because there are moments when I am just so overwhelmed with everything that I feel for you,” Penelope turned and looked at Josie, shrugging her shoulders and clearing her throat before continuing. “I know that I am cold and calculating, but with you, all that goes away for some stupid reason and I care way too damn much about you. And when it gets to be too much and I have to remind myself to pause and take a breath. So that’s what I was doing. Taking a breath.” Penelope flexed her fingers in Josie’s, securing her grip to remind herself that Josie was 

Josie opened her mouth to respond, closed it, and opened it again before she put her hand on top of Penelope’s, head again finding its way to Penelope’s shoulder. 

“You really are something else, you know that right?” Josie grabbed Penelope’s chin, turning the other brunette towards her, her palm resting on her cheek. “Who knew you were such a softie.” 

“Don’t you dare tell anyone, Jo-” Penelope began before Josie silenced her with a kiss. 

“I have fallen so hard for you and I don’t even want to stop to think about it, so I’m not going to. You’re stuck with me for as long as you’ll have me, P.” Penelope grabbed the Josie by the neck, pulling her towards her lips in hopes that she could bite back the _I love you_ that was threatening to burst forth, but tonight had already seen enough moments of truth. 

Josie leaned her forehead against Penelope’s when they came up for air, eyes dancing by the starlight, before standing, grabbing Penelope's hand to pull her up and away from the edge of the roof. 

“Can we go back to bed, now? Maybe I can show you just much I care about you.”

**Author's Note:**

> the ending felt a bit wrong but i wanted to get a bit deeper in penelope's head. she is so confident and sure of herself but i see moments of vulnerability and second-guessing that every teenage girl no doubt has when it comes to a first love.
> 
> comments are always greatly appreciated. find me on twitter/tumblr @salztiepark! and seriously, hit me up with ideas or prompts because i am so not creative but i sure love to write and would absolutely love to get to know all of you <33


End file.
